The salvaged _interpreter_scripts_dir hand-rolled the Scripts/bin layout,
which the AST lint-test in test_update_zip_two_phase forbids — route it
through the canonical hermes_constants.venv_bin_dir instead, with the
interpreter's own dir as fallback for non-venv layouts.
- _is_uv_command: detect 'python -m uv'/'python -m uvx' and launcher
wrappers, not just a uv basename (review: naive check missed module form)
- _insert_python_pin: never duplicate a caller-supplied --python (review:
last-wins ambiguity)
- _interpreter_scripts_dir: when pinning to sys.executable on Windows with
no project venv, quarantine the running interpreter's Scripts dir so the
hermes.exe shims uv rewrites are actually unlocked (review: quarantine
path diverged from pinned interpreter)
- tests: rewritten to repo English convention; added python -m uv,
--python-guard and Windows quarantine-target cases (5 total)
When Hermes is installed via pip / site-packages (e.g. the Windows
installer), PROJECT_ROOT is the interpreter's site-packages directory and
PROJECT_ROOT/venv is never created. The update and interrupted-install
recovery paths still set VIRTUAL_ENV=PROJECT_ROOT/venv, so uv fails with
'Failed to inspect Python interpreter from active virtual environment'
before installing anything — leaving the install partially updated.
Detect the nonexistent VIRTUAL_ENV in the shared dependency-install helper
and pin uv to the running interpreter (uv pip install --python
sys.executable) instead, matching the fix already applied to lazy-deps
(#83335) and the ZIP update path (#71510).
On Windows the updater renames the live `hermes*.exe` shims aside
(`hermes.exe.old.<unix-ms>`) so uv can write replacements. When that quarantine
succeeds but the install then fails, the recovery path could leave the install
with no `hermes` on PATH at all — unrecoverable in place, because the command
that would repair it IS `hermes update` (#75584).
Restoring a quarantined shim happens at three sites: the updater, the
early-recovery installer, and the startup sweep's orphan rescue. Each was a
single un-retried rename whose OSError was swallowed in silence, while the
OUTBOUND quarantine rename already retried a lock. That is backwards — a failed
quarantine merely aborts an update, a failed restore removes `hermes` from
PATH — and the two sites that had messages had already drifted apart.
- `_early_recovery.restore_quarantined_shims()` is now the single
implementation: retry ladder, one recovery message, returns the pairs it
could not restore. It lives in the stdlib-only module that both `main` and
`_install_repair` already import, so the layers cannot drift again. A pair is
not a failure when the original reappeared or the quarantine file vanished —
two processes sweeping the same orphan must not produce a spurious error.
- `_cleanup_quarantined_exes` unlinked every `*.exe.old.*` on each invocation.
When the original shim was already missing, that .old file was the ONLY
surviving copy — deleting it converted a one-rename recovery into a full
reinstall. It now rescues the orphan through the shared helper instead, and
leaves anything inside a 15-minute grace window alone so it cannot destroy a
concurrent update's in-flight quarantine.
- Ordering is by the PARSED `.old.<unix-ms>` stamp, not the raw filename.
Lexicographic ordering only tracks recency while every stamp shares a digit
width; a stray `.old.999` sorts above a 13-digit epoch-ms stamp and would be
the copy rescued onto the live shim name.
- Names whose suffix does not parse as int-ms are not ours: never rescued,
never deleted. The sweep should not destroy files whose provenance it cannot
establish, and they are not produced by the quarantiner.
The stamp is read from the filename rather than st_mtime because `rename`
preserves the original shim's mtime, which records when uv wrote the shim —
days earlier, in general — not when it was quarantined. A regression test pins
that distinction.
Messages go to stderr: the sweep runs on EVERY hermes invocation and
`hermes acp` speaks JSON-RPC on stdout.
Scope note: `_quarantine_running_hermes_exe` is deliberately byte-identical to
main here. Why the outbound rename fails in the first place (the launcher
holding its own image without FILE_SHARE_DELETE) is #88121's subject; this is
the net underneath, covering the case where quarantine SUCCEEDS and the install
dies afterwards. The two touch disjoint functions and can merge in either order.
Reproduced and verified on Windows 11 (26200), Python 3.11.15: stranded the
shims, confirmed a normal `hermes` invocation now rescues the orphan instead of
deleting it, and confirmed an exhausted rescue prints the recovery command.
16 new tests; 35 pass across the four quarantine suites.
Vestigial autostart is not proof the user wants a standalone gateway
run. When Desktop currently supervises this install's control plane,
the updater must not spawn a competing messaging daemon. Serve is not
treated as gateway-equivalent.
The #87331 remaining half: when hermes.exe (or a sibling shim) could not
be renamed aside, the updater printed a warning and ran the installer
anyway — which died partway on the same locks and stranded the venv
between versions.
- _run_quarantined_install gains strict_quarantine: any shim whose
rename failed every retry aborts BEFORE the install command runs
(successful renames rolled back), raising ShimQuarantineError.
- The update dependency sync passes strict_quarantine=True. The update
boundary turns the error into a refusal: defer via the
update-incomplete marker, exit 2 (recorded as refused by the receipt
net), never ZIP-fallback. Post-sync repair installs keep warn-and-try
(their venv is already mutated; refusing buys nothing).
- The recovery installer (_install_repair._run_install_cmd) is strict
unconditionally: marker survives, next launch retries after the
holder exits.
- Live Windows E2E for the wine2e lane: a real child holds hermes.exe
without FILE_SHARE_DELETE (the exact field lock shape), strict path
refuses with zero installer invocations, releases roll back, and the
same path proceeds once the holder exits.
Sabotage-verified: reverting the strict wiring makes both fail-closed
tests fail.
PR #92092 fixed the same vanished-launcher bug by restoring copies into
the legacy in-checkout hermes-agent\bin from the update tail. That
location is what this branch removes: untracked files there are swept
by the update autostash on every cycle (restore/sweep treadmill, plus a
parked stash entry per update under --keep-stash), and unconditional
exe copies break on relocatable venvs ('uv trampoline failed to
canonicalize script path'). This branch's managed-binary-dir layout
supersedes both mechanisms, so the merge resolves to it:
- drop _sync_windows_cli_launchers and its _ensure_acp_launcher call
(Windows staging/repair lives in ensure_windows_bin_launchers at
process start and migrate_windows_bin_path in the update tail);
_ensure_acp_launcher is a Windows no-op again
- keep #92092's genuinely better installer semantics: staging stays in
a dedicated Install-HermesCommandLaunchers function that throws
BEFORE any PATH mutation when the required launcher cannot be staged
and verified -- previously Set-PathVariable could put an empty dir on
PATH and still print 'hermes command ready'. Reworked for this
branch's layout: caller passes the destination ($HermesHome\bin),
launcher form follows the venv (exe copy vs .cmd delegator), and the
verify step accepts either form
- rework #92092's AST-lifted PowerShell test for the new function
signature, keeping its fail-before-PATH-mutation assertions and
adding relocatable-venv form-selection coverage
- drop tests/hermes_cli/test_windows_cli_launcher_repair.py (pinned the
superseded in-checkout mechanism; equivalent and broader coverage
lives in tests/hermes_cli/test_ensure_windows_bin_launchers.py)
The installer staged the hermes/hermes-acp launcher copies at
hermes-agent\bin -- inside the git working tree -- and put that dir on
the user PATH (#84452). The update command's pre-pull autostash
(git stash push --include-untracked) swept those untracked, unignored
copies off disk, and once the desktop updater stopped re-applying
stashes (--keep-stash, 5dd221d442) nothing restored them: `hermes`
stopped resolving in every new terminal on every desktop-updated
install.
Move the canonical launcher home to the managed binary dir
(%LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\bin, next to the managed uv) -- outside the
checkout, where no git operation can ever touch it. The dir is
per-machine and shared by every profile, so all anchoring uses
get_default_hermes_root(), never HERMES_HOME (which points inside
profiles\<name> under `hermes -p`).
The copy design also had a second latent break: managed-uv rebuilds
create relocatable venvs, and a relocatable venv's exe trampoline
resolves relative to its own location -- a copy outside venv\Scripts
dies with 'uv trampoline failed to canonicalize script path'. Launcher
form now depends on the venv (lockstep in install.ps1 and
_install_repair.py): exe copy for normal venvs, a .cmd delegator
invoking the in-venv exe by absolute path for relocatable ones. Either
form counts as present, so pre-rebuild exe copies are left alone.
Delivery to the existing fleet, per cohort:
- already-broken installs cannot run the CLI, so an import-time heal in
hermes_cli.main (ensure_windows_bin_launchers) re-stages missing
launchers when the desktop app spawns its backend -- the one channel
that still reaches them. Gates fail toward inaction: canonical dir
only for the managed clone, legacy hermes-agent\bin only while the
user PATH still resolves through it (some pre-managed-uv installs
have no hermes\bin PATH entry; the legacy re-stage is what fixes
those). Staging-name + os.replace keeps concurrent process starts
from tearing a launcher; the helper never raises.
- healthy old-layout installs migrate in the update tail
(migrate_windows_bin_path): stage canonical launchers, verify them
BEFORE touching the registry, prepend hermes\bin to the user PATH,
strip the legacy entries (hermes-agent\bin and venv\Scripts, #83797),
preserving REG_EXPAND_SZ and raw %VARS%. The legacy dir's files stay
on purpose -- configs holding absolute launcher paths keep working;
only the sweepable PATH resolution route goes.
- fresh installs get the new layout from install.ps1 directly.
/bin/ is gitignored so the one update that DELIVERS this fix cannot
sweep pre-migration launchers a final time under the old rules; the
gitignore line, the legacy re-stage branch, and the update-tail call
are transition machinery with a named expiry once the fleet has
migrated.
Also rewrites _ensure_acp_launcher's stale Windows paragraph to match
(raw docstring fixes its invalid \S escape) and updates the Windows
native docs to the new layout, with a docs<->installer parity test.
A clean checkout parked on a feature branch now always switches to the
update target. Unmerged commits are safe on the branch (git checkout
never discards committed work) and get a loud 'kept' notice naming the
branch, count, and the checkout command to resume the work. Previously
the update hard-skipped with exit 1 — a dead end for the desktop update
button, gateway /update, and cron, which have no way to resolve a skip.
Dirty trees (uncommitted changes) still skip loudly, and the
updates.auto_switch_parked_branch: false opt-out still pins the branch.
Phase 2 core slice of #91277: the updater now knows WHAT it is operating
on before it mutates anything.
- hermes_cli/update_inventory.py (new): side-effect-free runtime
inventory — install kind via detect_install_method (git / docker / nix
/ apt, updatable-in-place or not, with the correct external update
command for image/package-managed installs), all profiles, every live
gateway with its supervisor (systemd / launchd / manual via the
fleet-wide _get_service_pids), running code_sha/code_version from the
#91283 gateway_state.json stamps, and the restart mechanism each
runtime will get.
- hermes update --plan: prints the plan and exits; runs BEFORE the
docker/nix refusal gates so image-managed installs get a useful
'not updatable in place + right command' report instead of a bare
refusal. Read-only, safe on a live fleet.
- Every real update run now records the pre-update plan in its receipt
('plan' key) and prints a one-line fleet summary, so post-mortems can
compare what the update SAW against what it did.
- Docs: updating.md (--plan section + receipts/fleet-check section),
cli-commands.md (flag row + receipts behavior bullet).
- 11 tests: two-profile fleet classification, docker not-in-place,
dead-PID exclusion, PID-file fallback dedupe, all-probes-fail
never-raises, JSON round-trip for the receipt, print output shapes,
receipt integration.
Review on #91283: begin_update_receipt() fires early in _cmd_update_impl,
but finalization only existed on the success/ZIP/CalledProcessError
paths. Early sys.exit paths (Windows concurrent-instance preflight,
venv-holder refusal, head-pinned no-op, fetch failure) terminated with
the receipt started but never written — losing exactly the refused/
failed runs the receipt matters most for.
- update_receipt.py: finalize_pending_update_receipt(exit_code,
stop_reason) — boundary safety net; maps exit 2 → 'refused', other
non-zero → 'failed'; records exit_code + stop_reason. Exactly-once by
construction (singleton popped in finalize_update_receipt), so runs
the inner paths already finalized are untouched.
- main.py cmd_update: SystemExit/BaseException/else arms around
_cmd_update_impl persist any still-open receipt with the real exit
code, then re-raise unchanged. Future early exits are covered without
per-site finalize patches.
- 5 regression tests incl. end-to-end through the real cmd_update
wrapper (exit 2 preserved, outcome 'refused', stop reason recorded,
singleton cleared, exactly one receipt file).
Adds an OpenCode Free provider plugin. Free model discovery uses models.dev
(cost.input == 0 AND status != "deprecated"), matching opencode CLI's exact
filter logic.
The free tier requires a real account API key and throttles third-party
clients by User-Agent:
- With OPENCODE_FREE_API_KEY configured, the key is sent as a Bearer token
and requests identify as "opencode/latest".
- Without a key, the keyless fallback strips the SDK's always-injected empty
Authorization header and still sends the opencode User-Agent.
- The credential resolver no longer blanks OPENCODE_FREE_API_KEY
unconditionally (the stale keyless-tier assumption), and credential-pool
exhaustion no longer surfaces the misleading "Set OPENCODE_FREE_API_KEY"
message.
Co-authored-by: Jean-François <jfm@laposte.net>
Signed-off-by: Rudraksh Chahal <131520192+rudrakshchahal@users.noreply.github.com>
`hermes update` runs in the pre-pull interpreter. The auto-restart phase
imports freshly-pulled gateway source, which resolves sibling imports
against the OLD sys.modules cache — so any update where an already-cached
module gained a new export ImportErrored the whole phase and left the
gateway serving pre-update code (2026-08-20 field failure: new gateway.py
needs cli_output.line_input, cached cli_output predates it).
Class fix replacing the per-symptom _UPDATE_RUNTIME_RELOAD_MODULES
approach: _purge_stale_hermes_modules() evicts every cached module under
the Hermes package prefixes (hermes_cli/gateway/tools/tui_gateway/agent)
right before the restart phase, so later lazy imports rebuild a
self-consistent module graph from the updated checkout. The updater's own
executing modules are exempt (purging them buys nothing; reload-in-place
is the unsafe op, and we never reload). Root-segment check spares
prefix-lookalike packages. Best-effort, never raises.
5 new tests incl. an end-to-end repro of the field failure shape
(stale module missing symbol -> ImportError -> purge -> import resolves).
The desktop updater ran `hermes update --yes`, which auto-restored any
uncommitted source-tree edits onto the freshly updated checkout. On dirty
from-source installs this silently carried local modifications across every
update and could break the rebuilt app (field report: Windows update handoff
leaving the app 'crashed').
New `hermes update --keep-stash`: local changes are still autostashed so the
update can proceed, but are never re-applied — they stay parked in git stash
with printed recovery guidance. Both desktop handoff scripts (windows.ps1,
posix.sh) now pass it, probing `update --help` first so older installed
backends without the flag keep working. Failure paths are unchanged (stash
preserved, no restore); updates.non_interactive_local_changes: discard still
wins.
Tests: park/restore/failure-path coverage incl. a sabotage-verified
regression test; docs updated.
Every long-lived Hermes process is now positively identifiable so reapers
never have to guess lineage from PPID archaeology or cmdline shape:
- hermes_cli/process_identity.py (new): HERMES_SPAWN tag build/parse,
spawn-ledger.json self-registration keyed on (pid, create_time) — PID
reuse cannot forge the pair — with #89298-style corrupt-file quarantine,
and a kill-on-close job-object self-attach (BREAKAWAY_OK preserved for
the existing CREATE_BREAKAWAY_FROM_JOB escape hatches).
- serve/dashboard (web_server.py) and the gateway entry point register
themselves at startup and attach to the job; Desktop legacy
HERMES_PARENT_PID/winms marker reused as spawner identity so lineage
works with every Desktop version.
- Desktop stamps HERMES_SPAWN on backend spawns (parent-process-identity.ts).
- hermes update gets a positive-identity rung ahead of the heuristic ones:
_ledger_reapable_backend_pids reaps holders the ledger PROVES are orphaned
backends (purpose reapable + recorded spawner provably dead) in ANY update
context. Ledger-unknown holders fall through to the existing rungs.
22 new tests, sabotage-verified.
Field incident (2026-08-20): a Windows Desktop update hand-off
(update --yes --gateway --force) left a swarm of per-profile serve
backends (mr-tester, probe-inherit, turqoise, clippy, maroon, …) holding
cryptography/_rust.pyd. Some still had a live parent (the tearing-down
Electron process, or the venv launcher->worker two-hop chain mid-exit),
so the strict orphan-only reap (_orphaned_desktop_backend_pids, which
bails the instant ANY holder has a live parent) disqualified the whole
set and the venv-holder guard dead-ended. The user saw a ~12-minute hang,
force-closed, and the half-done state stranded bot sessions.
New rung: _handoff_reapable_backend_pids reaps surviving Hermes
serve/dashboard backends from this venv — live parent or not — but ONLY
in the hand-off context the caller gates on: args.gateway AND the
update-incomplete marker present AND no live hermes.exe shim. In that
window nothing legitimate supervises or respawns a serve backend (the
Desktop tree-kills its backends and parks any relaunch behind the marker,
#50238), so a surviving backend is a leak, not a race. A non-backend
holder (operator REPL, stray script) still disqualifies the whole set;
psutil-unavailable returns None (keep refusing). Wired as the final rung
before the existing dead-end, after the orphan-only reap.
`hermes update` on Windows detached on every run, including the
`Already up to date!` no-op that never touches the venv. emozilla hit
the visible half: the shim exits, PowerShell takes the console back,
and a child prints the result under a fresh prompt — it reads as a
frozen update. The invisible half is worse: the hand-off sat ahead of
the fetch, so it also carried off the stash and branch-switch
questions, which #90205 then had to answer by closing stdin. Nobody
who mods Hermes got asked about their local changes again.
The shim lock is real and the child is still required — a launcher
holds venv\Scripts\hermes.exe open without FILE_SHARE_DELETE for the
whole command, so the quarantine rename is refused and uv fails with
os error 32. A parent that waits deadlocks against the handle it is
itself holding, and Windows has no exec to escape with.
But that lock only binds one step. Move the hand-off to the dependency
sync boundary, beside the native-module deferral that solves the same
"this process holds a file the sync must replace" problem — and for
the reason that placement already exists (#86735: a preflight ahead of
the fetch re-bricked the flow it was meant to protect). Everything
before the sync now runs foreground in the user's console: the
preflight, the stash question, the branch switch, git pull. An
up-to-date run never hands off at all.
Deferring to the next launch cannot substitute here the way it does
for a mapped .pyd: every future `hermes` launch is also the shim, so
the marker would defer forever. The child re-runs the update to keep
the node/web/lazy-refresh tail, and takes the sync it was spawned for
rather than the up-to-date early return.
'hermes --version' (and -V) now prints the full version report — banner
version line with upstream SHA, install directory, authoritative install
method, Python and OpenAI SDK versions, and update status — making the
separate 'hermes version' subcommand redundant. The subcommand is removed.
- _startup_fast.print_fast_version_info() is now THE canonical version
printer: static lines print instantly from stdlib probes, then the
banner label, install-method resolver, and update check lazy-import
after the first line is on screen (each degrades gracefully).
- main.py _print_version_info() delegates to it (used by /version in the
CLI chat surface and the --version flag path); the old duplicate
implementation is deleted.
- hermes_cli/subcommands/version.py removed; parser wiring, subcommand
sets, console-engine extraction entry, and tests updated. Hermes
Console keeps a 'version' command wired to the shared printer.
- Termux fast paths now include update status too (previously
check_updates=False).
- Docs/i18n, CONTRIBUTING, SECURITY, and nix checks updated to
'hermes --version'.
The startup pruner is deliberately conservative (unattended, pre-banner),
so real installs accumulate what it can never touch: trees preserved for
untracked-only scratch, and orphaned local branches beyond the two
auto-generated prefixes it deletes. A measured multi-agent box: 35 trees /
15GB / 244 local branches, 120 of them fully merged.
New attended surface (hermes_cli/worktree_gc.py + worktree_cmd.py):
- hermes worktree list — audit every tree: age, size, verdict, reason,
plus deletable-branch count
- hermes worktree prune [--dry-run|--trees-only|--branches-only]
- /worktree prune [--dry-run] — same engine in-session; never touches the
session's own active tree
- startup escalation: one WARNING when .worktrees/ exceeds 10 trees or
5GB, naming the reclaim commands (silence is how boxes hit 15GB)
Safety invariants (shared with the startup pruner via cli.py primitives):
tracked modifications and unique unpushed commits never deleted at any
age; live-locked trees untouched; branch deletion gated on worktree
removal success; untracked-only scratch ARCHIVED to
~/.hermes/archive/worktree-prune/ before its tree is reaped.
Branch GC is content-gated, not name-gated: any local branch fully merged
or git-cherry patch-equivalent upstream is safe to delete (rebase merges
rewrite SHAs, so --merged alone misses the dominant leak); unique-commit,
checked-out, protected, and stale-base (>50 ahead) branches are kept.
Classification is parallel (8 workers) — 244 branches audit in ~64s live.
git timeouts degrade to keep (returncode 124) instead of crashing the
audit — live-verified failure on a 746MB .git repo.
16 behavior-contract tests against real git fixtures; live dry-run on the
production repo: 12 trees reclaimable, 120 branches deletable, 0 false
positives among kept trees.
Widens #90327's line_input() to the whole bug class: all 46 bare input()
free-text prompt sites across the setup wizards (model_setup_flows, setup,
config, gateway, auth, auth_commands, plugins_cmd, skills_hub, bundles,
setup_whatsapp_cloud, main) now route through line_input(), and the shared
cli_output.prompt() / setup.prompt() helpers do too — so every CLI wizard
gets cursor editing, not just the custom model prompt.
Redirected stdin and missing prompt_toolkit keep builtin input() behavior.
E2E: real PTY with raw escape bytes through line_input, cli_output.prompt,
and setup.prompt (arrows + Ctrl+A/E edit correctly); redirected-stdin
fallback verified.
The re-exec'd child inherits the console, so sys.stdin.isatty() still reported
a terminal and the update asked its local-changes question. By then the parent
shim had exited and the shell had taken the console back, so the prompt could
not be answered and the update sat there forever — worse than the lock it
replaced, because nothing recovers without closing the window.
Spawn the child with stdin closed. It then takes the same path the gateway and
Desktop updates take: honour updates.non_interactive_local_changes, which
stashes by default so nothing is lost, and keep going without asking.
MOVEFILE_DELAY_UNTIL_REBOOT was the quarantine's last resort, and it is worse
than doing nothing. It writes to HKLM, so a non-elevated update — every
Desktop-driven one, and most terminal ones — gets ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED and
reports nothing. When it does succeed it frees nothing for the install
running right now, and the queued operation outlives that update: at the next
boot it moves aside whatever sits at the shim path, including a shim a later
repair just wrote.
Drops the fallback and sweeps entries older versions queued, matching only
our own <shim> -> <shim>.old.<stamp> pairs so unrelated installers keep
theirs.
Salvaged from #88121 by @fangliquanflq.
`hermes update` launched as venv\Scripts\hermes.exe can never finish on
Windows. The launcher runs the interpreter with the shim as its script and
holds it open without FILE_SHARE_DELETE for the whole command, so the
quarantine rename is refused and uv fails to replace hermes.exe with
os error 32 — every time, with no Desktop, gateway or AV involved. The
concurrent-instance preflight cannot catch it because it excludes this
process and its ancestors by design.
Detect the shim from both the process ancestry and this process's own launch
paths (argv[0], __main__.__file__, the spec origin — the runpy/zipapp launch
puts <shim>\__main__.py there), intersected with the project venv's shims so
an unrelated hermes.exe never matches. When it matches, re-run the same
argv as `venv\Scripts\python.exe -m hermes_cli.main ...` and return, which
releases the shim before the child installs anything.
The hand-off sits ahead of the update lock so the child claims the marker
itself rather than adopting one the parent immediately releases, and any
failure falls through to the previous in-process behaviour with the manual
command printed.
Refs #88838, #89599, #86093
`uv venv` writes `.venv` while our installers write `venv`, and every venv
lookup in the update/repair paths hardcoded `venv`. On a `.venv` install
`_venv_scripts_dir()` returned None, so the Windows shim-lock preflight, the
quarantine, and the console-script verification all silently skipped
themselves — the update walked straight into the failure they exist to catch.
Adds `hermes_constants.project_venv_dir()` as the single resolver and routes
both `_venv_scripts_dir()` implementations plus the two VIRTUAL_ENV call
sites through it.
Refs #79542
The subprocess-based exclusivity test invoked hermes_cli.main in the CI
environment where startup exits 1 before the manual guard runs. Enforce
the conflict in argparse itself (mutually exclusive group, exit 2 at parse
time) and test the parser directly; the manual guard stays for programmatic
namespace fills.
The Bot Mode teammate-DM protocol told agents to inline the message into a
double-quoted shell argument: quotes truncated the body and $(...)/backticks
executed on the sender's machine. The protocol now writes the message to a
temp file and delivers it via a new 'hermes chat --query-file' flag (or '-'
for stdin); 'hermes peer dm' already accepted stdin and the peer recipe now
uses it. No shell pass touches the body at any point.
Supersedes the tool-based approach in #89077 — same bug, fixed with a CLI
flag + protocol rewrite instead of a new model tool.
Co-authored-by: mehmetkr-31 <mehmetkr-31@users.noreply.github.com>
Hermes is an agent for one person. The credentials, the memory, the
sessions and the cron jobs all belong to that person. But the only
declarative path was a NixOS system service. Issue #9056 asks for the
user-level equivalent. 25 public Nix configurations already write one by
hand, and several of them copy nix/nixosModules.nix and edit the systemd
part.
This module is not a second copy of that file. The code that both modules
share moves into nix/moduleCommon.nix:
- the options
- the renderers for config.yaml, .env and the documents
- the activation body
- the command lines of the processes
nixosModules.nix keeps only the parts that need root. Those parts are the
service user, stateDir, addToSystemPackages, container mode and tmpfiles.
The file goes from 1008 lines to 666.
`services.hermes-agent` is now the same option set on both modules. A
NixOS example works on Home Manager without a change, and an option added
one time appears on both.
The Home Manager module is different only where it must be. It uses
systemd.user.services on Linux and launchd.agents on Darwin. It uses
home.activation and not system.activationScripts. It sets HERMES_HOME
directly, with the default ~/.hermes, so an existing directory continues
to work. It uses the modes 0600 and 0700, because the state has one user
and does not need the group-shared umask of the NixOS module. It does not
support container mode, which needs root and the Docker socket.
The change also makes four corrections that apply to both modules:
- backend.mode runs `hermes serve` or `hermes dashboard`. Both modules
had only the gateway. But Hermes Desktop and the web dashboard connect
to a different process, so six of the configurations in public repos
add a second unit by hand. serve and dashboard are one entry point with
one flag of difference, and you can run only one of them. Thus the
option is an enum. The NixOS module asserts against container mode with
a backend, and does not make a unit that cannot start.
- hermesHomeFiles installs files into HERMES_HOME. The `documents` option
installs into the working directory, which is correct for AGENTS.md but
wrong for SOUL.md and memories/. Hermes reads those files from
HERMES_HOME, in agent/prompt_builder.py:2095. A SOUL.md in `documents`
made a workspace file that Hermes never loaded as the identity. The
documentation said this in prose, but two directory diagrams showed the
opposite. This change corrects both. A key in either option can now
contain subdirectories.
- `documents` needs an explicit `workingDirectory`. The default of that
option is bad on both modules. It is the home directory of the user on
Home Manager, and ${stateDir}/workspace on NixOS. A user who declares
workspace files without a directory therefore gets a place that the
user did not select. The place is also different on each module. The
modules now refuse that combination.
The test is on the priority of the option and not on its value. An
option that nothing sets keeps the priority of its own default, and
each definition from a user is stronger. Thus a directory with the same
text as the default still counts as a selection, and so does a
mkDefault. A comparison of values detects neither case.
- Each activation writes .env again from a base in the Nix store, and
does not add to the file that exists. Thus a second activation cannot
put the same secret in the file two times, and a removed
environmentFile goes away. environmentFiles keeps the type `listOf
str` and not `path`, so Nix cannot copy a sops-nix or agenix path into
the Nix store, which all users can read.
- HERMES_MANAGED and the .managed marker now hold the name of the system
that manages the install. Thus a refusal says "managed by home-manager"
and not "managed by NixOS", and `hermes update` gives the Nix guidance
for both shapes. The CLI does not print a rebuild command for each
system. It names the owner, and the user knows their own tool. A bare
`true` and an empty marker still mean NixOS, so this does not change an
existing install.
Verification. Six new checks, all built:
nixos-module evaluates the module with evalModules and the
NixOS module list. It asserts both units, one
HERMES_HOME, and that the module refuses
container mode with a backend.
home-manager-module evaluates the module with the
homeManagerConfiguration function of
home-manager. The process assertions run against
systemd units on Linux and launchd agents on
Darwin.
module-option-parity asserts that each shared option is on both
modules, and that the two exclusion lists name
only options that exist.
env-file-assembly runs the real .env script and checks the
contents, the mode, that a second run gives the
same bytes, and that a removed file goes away.
workspace-files-need-a-directory
checks that the module refuses `documents`
without a directory, and accepts a directory
that has the same text as the default.
service-argv runs each command line that the modules build
through the real parser of the CLI, with one
sentinel flag added, and requires that argparse
refuses only the sentinel.
`nix flake check` passes, with 21 checks in total.
The CLI branches that treat an install as a Nix install move to one
helper, is_nix_install_method. Four call sites in main.py, web_server.py,
update_cmd.py and doctor.py tested the literal set {"nix", "nixos"}, and
each one missed home-manager. recommended_update_command asks the managed
state before the code-scoped stamp again, because a managed install can
carry a stale stamp that names an update path the managed guard refuses.
The metrics contract gets a home-manager bucket, so a Home Manager
install does not report as unknown.
Each check was mutation-probed. 22 faults were injected, and the checks
caught all 22:
- a lost --no-open
- a backend that runs the gateway
- an overwritten config.yaml
- documents in the wrong directory
- a different HERMES_HOME on the two processes
- a lost HERMES_HOME export
- a missing backend unit
- a removed assertion
- an .env file that grows at each activation
- an install that reports NixOS
- an empty .managed marker
- an option on the NixOS module only
- a stale entry in an exclusion list
- a renamed subcommand
- an unknown flag
- the workspace-files assertion always passes
- the assertion compares values instead of priorities
- an off-by-one that lets an untouched default through
- the assertion also fires for hermesHomeFiles
- a mkDefault no longer counts as a selection
- the Home Manager module stops wiring the assertion
- the NixOS module stops wiring the assertion
The 16 Python tests in tests/hermes_cli/test_managed_install_shapes.py
were probed the same way. 8 faults were injected and 8 were caught.
These tests fail on this tree. They fail in the same way on the stashed
HEAD, and they have no relation to Nix:
- test_git_probe_tree_kill.py (2 tests)
- test_update_import_guard.py (1 test)
- test_telegram_media_read_timeout.py (2 tests)
- test_teams.py (a collection error)
Closes#9056
# Conflicts:
# hermes_cli/main.py
# hermes_cli/update_cmd.py
# hermes_cli/web_server.py
PR #67934 marked auto-discovered catalogs by writing two sentinel keys
INSIDE the user-facing ``models`` mapping of custom provider entries:
``__discovered_model_catalog__`` (written by
_save_discovered_models_to_config) and ``__explicit_model_allowlist__``
(injected by _normalize_custom_provider_entry). Every consumer of that
mapping — pickers, selectors, gateway/agent readers, and the user's own
config.yaml — had to know to filter those keys, and any site that
didn't listed them as phantom model IDs (``__discovered_model_catalog__``
showing up as a selectable "model"). The v11→v12 config migration and
the ACP session-state test caught exactly that leak on main.
Replace the in-mapping sentinels with a single entry-level flag:
- ``models_discovered: true`` now sits next to ``models``/``base_url``
on the provider entry; the models mapping stays a clean
``{model_id: metadata}`` dict with no reserved keys.
- _save_discovered_models_to_config writes the new shape and refreshes
catalogs it previously discovered (entry-level flag or legacy
sentinel) instead of treating them as user-curated metadata.
- _normalize_custom_provider_entry no longer injects
``__explicit_model_allowlist__``; a dict-shaped models mapping counts
as an explicit allowlist exactly when the entry is NOT marked
models_discovered.
- _models_config_is_allowlist takes the discovered flag as a parameter
(new helper _entry_models_discovered resolves it, including the
legacy in-mapping sentinel); all call sites updated
(model_switch.py, model_setup_flows.py, acp_adapter/server.py).
- Backward compat, no config version bump: configs written by a
pre-fix Hermes (sentinels inside models) still read correctly —
``__discovered_model_catalog__: true`` is treated as
models_discovered, both sentinel keys are stripped from model
listings, and the next discovery save migrates the entry to the
clean shape. Covered by a new regression test.
Also restore ``except Exception:`` on the pre-existing guards this PR
had narrowed to specific exception tuples (the resolve_runtime_provider
fallback in switch_model, the picker discovery/cache guards in
list_authenticated_providers, _get_model_config_dict, and
_credential_fingerprint). Those guards were intentionally broad on
main — a failed resolution or probe must degrade to the fallback path,
never crash the model switch. Guards the PR introduced for its own new
probe code keep their authored tuples.
The ACP new_session payload also goes back to
probe_current_custom_provider=False, matching the contract main's
test_new_session_returns_authenticated_cross_provider_model_state pins
(session opens must not block on live-probing the current custom
endpoint).
`hermes profile rename default <name>` (and the Desktop/dashboard rename
flows) now set a presentation-only `display_name` in profile.yaml instead
of erroring. The canonical id stays "default"; resolution, comparison,
and spawn paths are untouched. Named profiles keep real renames and their
display_name survives the move.
Surfaces: profile list/show/status, /profile (text only — data.profile
stays canonical), dashboard ProfilesPage, TUI-gateway profiles.list, and
Desktop (rail, switcher, Manage page, and the Bot Mode roster via a
displayName fallback so a renamed default shows its name, not "default").
Slimmer redo of the direction in PR #87760 by @yxssxn — thanks; see PR
body for what changed vs that approach.
Live incident 2026-08-17: the source checkout was parked on a stale feature
branch (claude-code-inspired/local-terminal-memory-limit, days behind main),
left there by earlier tooling. 'hermes update' autostashed, refreshed lazy
backends, synced skills, and printed '✓ Code updated!' / '✓ Update complete!'
while the checkout stayed on the stale branch with none of main's new code.
Two sessions burned time on 'the fix is missing' confusion.
- Parked-branch guard: auto-switch back to the update target ONLY when the
parked branch is clean and fully merged (git cherry origin/<target> shows
nothing unmerged); the checkout then STAYS on the target instead of being
re-parked. Otherwise: loud CODE UPDATE SKIPPED block naming the branch,
behind-count, and resolution commands; exit 1; branch untouched.
- The up-to-date (commit_count == 0) path no longer switches back to a
fully-merged parked branch either.
- Post-pull gate additionally refuses to print '✓ Code updated!' when HEAD
ends up attached to a non-target branch.
- Summary lines now carry the actual branch + HEAD short-sha:
'✓ Update complete! [main @ 30fcf9580]' — drift visible at a glance.
- New config toggle updates.auto_switch_parked_branch (default true).
- Real-git-fixture regression tests (init/clone/branch, no subprocess
mocks): clean+merged auto-switch, dirty skip, unmerged skip, cherry-picked
equivalence, config opt-out, unverifiable ref, on-main fast path,
up-to-date no-repark, summary branch/sha assertions.
Bots could message teammates on their own machine (hermes -p <bot> chat) and
the desktop could relay user mentions over Connections, but a bot had NO
transport to a bot on another gateway. This adds one, with zero new server
surface: the peer's existing api_server platform is the wire.
- hermes_cli/subcommands/peer.py: `hermes peer add/list/remove/dm`.
`dm <peer>[/<agent>]` resolves the remote agent's canonical "Bot Chat"
(list by title, create when missing), runs one synchronous agent turn via
POST /api/sessions/{id}/chat, and prints the reply on stdout — the exact
cross-machine twin of the local bot-messaging command, so the Bot Mode
protocol composes over it unchanged. Named profiles route via the peer's
/p/<profile>/ multiplex mirror. Peer URLs live in config.yaml
(`bot_peers`); the peer's API_SERVER_KEY is a credential and lives in
~/.hermes/.env as HERMES_PEER_<NAME>_KEY.
- hermes_cli/main.py: parser wiring + fast-path/session-flag command sets.
- tools/bot_mode_probe.py: when peers are registered, the injected Bot Chat
messaging protocol gains a cross-machine paragraph (peer roster +
`hermes peer dm` pattern) so agents discover remote teammates on their
own; peers join the capability fingerprint so registering/removing one
refreshes eternal Bot Chat prompts on the next message (loud, one-time,
user-initiated — no per-turn cache drift).
- Docs: Bot Mode guide (bot-initiated DMs across machines) + cli-commands
reference (`hermes peer` section + summary row).
Tests: tests/hermes_cli/test_peer_cmd.py (target parsing, /p/ scoping,
registry round-trip in isolated config, real-loopback-HTTP dm flow incl.
Bot Chat create-vs-reuse and bearer auth), bot_mode_probe peer-paragraph +
epoch tests. E2E: real `python -m hermes_cli.main peer ...` against a live
fake peer over HTTP with isolated HERMES_HOME (config/.env persistence,
bare + /p/<profile> routing, stdin, --json). 23 passed; ruff clean.
Sessions started inside a git checkout now source skills from
<root>/.hermes/skills/ and <root>/.agents/skills/ (the cross-tool
convention shared with other agent harnesses) as the highest-precedence
skill tier: project > local > external_dirs.
Loading is trust-gated per repo (skills.trusted_project_dirs, managed by
'hermes skills trust'/'untrust') because skills are executable procedure
documents — auto-sourcing them from any cloned repo is a prompt-injection
vector. Untrusted repos with skills get a one-line banner notice instead.
- agent/skill_utils.py: find_project_root, get_project_skills_dirs,
get_untrusted_project_skills_root, get_scan_ordered_skills_dirs;
project dirs join the curator read-only ownership boundary
- agent/prompt_builder.py: project tier scanned first, entries tagged
[project], same-named local entries shadowed; cache key extended
- tools/skills_tool.py: skills_list scans project dirs first (first-wins);
skill_view resolves cross-tier collisions in favor of the project tier
(same-tier ambiguity still refuses); security warning recognizes the tier
- agent/skill_commands.py + hermes_cli/commands.py: /skill-name slash
commands and gateway slash menus include project skills
- tools/credential_files.py: project dirs mounted into remote backends
- cli.py: banner notice (loaded count / trust hint)
- hermes_cli/main.py + subcommands/skills.py: hermes skills trust/untrust
- config: skills.project_discovery (default on), skills.trusted_project_dirs
- docs: Project-Local Skills section in skills.md
- tests: tests/agent/test_project_skills.py (18 cases)
Session cwd is fixed at agent build time, so the resolved tier is stable
for the conversation and the system prompt stays byte-stable (cache-safe).
Two gaps from the Aug 2026 'hermes -w timed out after 30s' incident:
1. Atomic failure cleanup: a timed-out/failed `git worktree add` left a
partially-materialized directory plus a LOCKED admin entry under
.git/worktrees/ (lock pid = the live hermes process that timed out),
which the startup pruner's dead-pid unlock never reaps — retries of
the same name fail forever. _cleanup_failed_worktree_add sweeps dir,
admin entry, and orphaned branch on every failure path (timeout,
nonzero exit, remote-base retry).
2. Pack maintenance: nothing consolidated the object store; on a
multi-agent box packs sprawl (39 packs / 638MB at the incident) and
every object lookup scans all pack indexes until worktree creation
blows its timeout. _maintain_pack_health repacks (niced, background,
fail-soft) when *.pack count reaches 15, wired into the existing
startup maintenance thread on both the CLI (-w) and TUI paths.
gc --auto doesn't cover this: its threshold is 50 packs.
Both sabotage-verified; full repack on the incident box: 39 packs ->
2, 638MB -> 287MB, worktree add 30s-timeout -> 0.5s.
Perplexity Computer's July update let its agent manage sessions
conversationally from any surface — pin, archive, rename, fork — treating
session organization as operational infrastructure rather than a GUI
nicety. Hermes already has the durable pinned flag in state.db (Desktop
sidebar writes it; auto-archive honors it), but no CLI access existed:
GUI-only management was a single point of failure and blocked scripting
(issue #52955).
- hermes sessions pin <id...> / unpin <id...>: set/clear the durable keep
flag via SessionDB.set_session_pinned (whole compression lineage,
prefix resolution, multi-id, exit 1 on any miss)
- hermes sessions pinned [--json]: list all pinned conversations via the
include_pinned back-fill (old pins can't fall off a paging window);
--json enables backup/restore scripting
- docs: user-guide/sessions.md section
- tests: 6 tests covering prefix resolution, multi-id partial failure,
pinned-only filtering, JSON shape, empty hint
The 'Configure auxiliary models' menu under 'hermes model' now includes a
Delegation entry so the delegate_task subagent model is discoverable and
configurable interactively, instead of requiring hand-edited
delegation.provider / delegation.model keys in config.yaml.
Delegation is not an auxiliary_client task — subagents are full child
agents resolved via tools/delegate_tool.py — so the picker entry writes to
the top-level delegation.* section rather than auxiliary.*. 'auto' (inherit
the parent agent) is persisted as empty strings, never the literal 'auto',
which delegate_tool would try to resolve as a provider name. 'Reset all to
auto' clears only the four delegation routing fields and preserves
non-routing settings like max_concurrent_children.
Live-testing the Cua Driver 0.20 convergence on Windows 11 (session 2,
cua-driver 0.20.0) surfaced three defects in the existing-profile browser
path and in install status.
1. The config grant was silently nullified by an approval bypass.
`--yolo` / `-z` map onto a private unrestricted daemon, which answers every
browser_prepare. Because the host delegated the entire existing-profile
decision to the driver, that bypass also nullified
`computer_use.grant_existing_profile: false`: a plain `hermes -z` attached
to the user's real Chrome profile and read live page content over CDP, with
the driver reporting it as "the approved existing Chromium profile". It was
never approved.
An approval bypass is consent to skip prompts, not consent to read an
existing profile's pages, cookies, and storage. CuaTypedBrowserRoute.prepare
now enforces the key itself, regardless of permission mode. bounded stays
exempt - its reviewed capability manifest is the authorization boundary.
The authorization inputs are resolved in the backend from config and the
backend's immutable mode, never from model-supplied kwargs.
2. The grant, once set, still could not be used.
With `grant_existing_profile: true` the runtime is launched
`--grant existing-profile` correctly, but cua_browser_prepare then hit a
runtime approval prompt anyway - re-asking the user to authorize what the
config already authorized, and making the documented opt-in unusable on any
non-interactive run, where the prompt has nobody to answer it and the call
dies on approval timeout. The durable, file-backed grant now stands in for
that prompt. Scope is narrow: only the existing-profile prepare, only when
the grant is present; isolated launches still prompt and any resolution
failure falls closed to prompting.
3. `computer-use status` hid a custom override and spliced its output.
With HERMES_CUA_DRIVER_CMD pointed at cmd.exe, status printed the child's
multi-line banner and prompt inside the one-line version field, never
mentioned the override, and advised `hermes computer-use install` - which
install itself (correctly) refuses to run against an overridden path. It now
names the override and mirrors install's update-or-unset guidance, and
version output is reduced to one bounded line.
Verified on the reported host: `-z` existing-profile attach now refuses and
names the key; `grant: true` no longer prompts (33s vs a 300s approval
timeout); status names the override and prints one line. No change to the
reconciliation path - driver SHA256 unchanged end to end.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
hermes update discovered and restarted hermes-gateway* systemd units but
never looked for hermes-serve* — the Desktop app's backend — so it kept
running stale pre-update code until the user restarted it by hand (#83438).
Extend the systemd unit discovery/restart loop to also match hermes-serve*
units. They don't wire SIGUSR1 to a graceful drain (only gateway/run.py
does), so restart eligibility for the graceful path is now gated on unit
name via a small, directly-tested helper; hermes-serve units fall straight
to the existing blunt systemctl restart path, matching the workaround the
issue already documents.
Response to AI review (Enough1122) on #86812:
1. `_create_titled_session`: log the underlying exception before returning
None so programmatic callers aren't left with an undebuggable "could
not be created" — failures (DB lock, I/O, import) now land in errors.log
via logger.exception.
2. Drop the source-reading `TestSourceGuard` — it violated the repo's
"never read source code in tests" rule and was a change-detector
(passed even if behavior regressed). The stderr routing is already
covered by the real-path `test_missing_session_fails_on_stderr`.
3. Bare `-c` + `--create-if-missing` now prints a stderr note explaining
the flag needs a session name, instead of silently ignoring it — makes
the no-op self-evident to programmatic callers.
Tests: 6 targeted + 8 adjacent, all passing.
`hermes chat -c "<title>" -q "<text>"` silently no-oped when no session
matched the title under quiet/programmatic use: the not-found message was
written to stdout (the channel quiet callers parse as the final response),
so a background send to a not-yet-existing named session vanished with no
error. Surfaces via Hermes-Bot-Mode bot-to-bot handoffs (#86794).
- not-found message now goes to stderr (exit 1 unchanged), so programmatic
callers always see it even with -Q/--quiet
- new --create-if-missing: with `-c <title>` and no matching session, create
a fresh session carrying the title and proceed — the deterministic
"send to this named thread, making it if needed" primitive plugins asked for
- extract the -c resolution block into _resolve_continue_arg for testability
Tests: flag parsing, titled-session creation, stderr routing, source guard.
Teknium